Voices of the Past

Escaping Preparation: The History Behind The Shelter of Each Other

My dog and I are always looking for great places to hike. On the western edge of Iowa is a state park named “Preparation Canyon”. Can’t you hear James Earl Jones saying that? Such an unusual name had to come from unusual history, so I looked it up and it is quite the story! 

In 1853, Charles Blancher Thompson and his followers established a commune called Preparation. Communes have been around long before hippies. During the 19th century, the United States experienced a Second Great Awakening with new religions and revivals popping up all over. Iowa’s farmlands hosted several communes. 

The leader of Preparation was a prolific writer. He hauled a Washington Hand Press into the wilderness and started printing. Over a thousand pages of Thompson’s newspapers and books are available on the internet. As a research source, those pages were a dud. He wrote little about his followers and their lives. Who lived in Preparation? Why did they join the group? What were their lives like? How did they survive?

I couldn’t find any diaries or letters left by residents of Preparation. The Find a Grave website provided the bare bones of their lives. In the five years of Jehovah’s Presbytery of Zion, there were 12 births to mothers age 17 to 46. There were two deaths, a man in his early 50s and an infant. 

I didn’t find anyone with medical training in the community. My fictional heroine had survived St. Louis’s cholera epidemic, developed strong opinions about public health, and became a herbalist and midwife. Keziah was involved with nearly everyone in the community and delighted with the variety of plants in the Loess Hills surrounding Preparation.

Keziah had become convinced that Thompson was a fraud. She held onto her Christian faith and prayed for a way to escape his grasp, but she continued to be stuck. God surprised her by using her in these difficult circumstances. 

The other fictional character is Duncan Ross. He became a member Thompson’s group just before they moved to Iowa, hoping for family to replace the loss of his. He joined forces with Keziah to keep Preparation’s citizens healthy and to stop the brewing violence. 

Near Preparation is a road called Larpenteur Memorial Highway, which gave me the name of another real person who lived in the area. Charles Larpenteur was born in France, moved to Baltimore, then St. Louis. He worked along the Missouri River and recorded his adventures in Forty Years a Fur Trader. He built a house and called it Fontainebleau. Unfortunately the house is gone and he didn’t leave a drawing of it. It must have been one of the best houses west of St. Louis, but probably nothing like the Palace of Fontainebleau in France. Larpenteur’s wife Makes Cloud, an Assiniboine woman, must have shared Keziah’s interest in herbal infusions for health. 

Like Keziah, you may feel hemmed in by limited finances, job commitments, or family obligations. I hope you’ll be inspired by The Shelter of Each Other and see how God can use you in any situation. I’d love to hear what you think! You can reach me at https://catherinerichmond.com/ or https://www.facebook.com/cathy.richmond.52.